Actors, Media Fall for Fake Twitter Accounts of Harnaaz Sandhu

We found that the previous handle of the impostor account was '@malopezpz'.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

As India woke up to the news of 21-year-old Harnaaz Sandhu being crowned the 70th Miss Universe 2021 at Eilat, Israel, on 13 December, congratulatory messages began pouring in on social media.

Politicians, actors, and others applauded Sandhu for bringing the crown home for the first time since 2000. But what was lost in the revelry was the fact that it was a fake account on Twitter that had received all these messages. The said account had over 85,000 followers before it was suspended by the platform. However, it is active once again with a different username, '@HarnaazSandhu05'.

Media outlets, politicians, and actors had congratulated Sandhu on Twitter by tagging '@HarnaazSandhu03'. Some of the archived links of the tweets can be seen here, here, here and here.

MEDIA HOUSES, ACTORS FALL FOR THE IMPOSTOR ACCOUNT

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

However, this account isn't Sandhu's, but of an impostor, who has changed its username and handle to trick netizens into believing that it was her official handle.

The account's initial handle was '@HarnaazSandhu03', which was later changed to '@HarnaazSandhu'. It was suspended after that, only to return as '@HarnaazSandhu05'.

We also found that the account was previously under the name of 'María Alejandra López Pérez‏', and the handle was '@malopezpz'.

Let's take a look at how we know that these accounts are of the same person.

FROM 'MARIA ALEJANDRA' TO 'HARNAAZ SANDHU'

The account's username before it was suspended was '@HarnaazSandhu' (archived here). We couldn't find any available archives, but we checked its Twitter ID, which was 2259459978.

(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

The account that was tagged by multiple users was '@HarnaazSandhu03'. So we decided to take a look at the available archives of this account.

The archives were available between 13 December and 14 December.

We also checked the Twitter ID of this handle, and found that it was the same as the previous account's.

(Source: Wayback Machine/Altered by The Quint)

It may be noted that a Twitter ID is unique to an account, and no two accounts can have the same ID.

Further, we also came across a tweet by a user who pointed out that the said account's previous Twitter handle was 'María Alejandra López Pérez'.

We looked for the archives of this account and found a tweet on Wayback Machine from September 2021. We noticed that even this account had the same Twitter ID.

(Source: Wayback Machine/Altered by The Quint)

The user also pointed out that the impostor account of Sandhu was briefly verified by Twitter. However, we couldn't find any archives of when the account was verified.

We have written to Twitter to get a clarification, and the story will be updated if and when we receive a response.

SAME ACCOUNT IS ACTIVE AGAIN WITH A DIFFERENT USERNAME

While '@HarnaazSandhu' and '@HarnaazSandhu03' have been suspended by Twitter, we noticed that another Twitter account, with a similar bio and date of joining had cropped up on the platform, and is still active.

'@HarnaazSandhu05', which has the same Twitter ID, is active with over 86,000 followers.

(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

A look at the time stamps of the three also reveals that the accounts are the same.

Further, other details like the date of joining and bio were also the same for the said accounts.

The date of joining and other details of the accounts were the same. 

(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

SANDHU CLARIFIES THAT HER OFFICIAL ACCOUNT IS '@HARNAAZKAUR'

After the confusion, Sandhu took to Instagram to clarify that her official Twitter account is by the name of 'Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu', and the handle is '@HarnaazKaur'.

Harnaaz Sandhu clarified that her official account is '@HarnaazKaur'.

(Source: Twitter)

The account was later verified by Twitter. However, this is not the first time that an impostor account has led to such confusions. Previously, we have debunked several such stories where the media and politicians have fallen for impostor accounts.

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